My in-laws had an old MacBook Pro that they wanted the data wiped from, mainly because the display was missing vertical columns of pixels. I couldn’t bring myself to erase without figuring out what the issue was, surely others were on this years ago. Here’s a summary of people describing the issue with past and current fixes (the last I may attempt at a later date when I’m a bit more mobile).
Apple Community Support – Vertical lines of missing pixels on MacBook Pro
One customer saying that Apple replaced his machine
Apple’s Repair Extension, ended December 7, 2012
A1261 2008 17″ MacBook Prorepair.wiki
iFixit.com – MacBook Pro 17″ Models A1151 A1212 A1229 and A1261